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Topic: STORY OF THE DAY (Read 87762 times)

Read this, and let it really sink in... Then, choose how you start your day tomorrow...

Jerry is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant.

The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.

I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested. "Yes, it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life."

I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gun point by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. “The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked. Jerry continued, "...the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man.'

I knew I needed to take action." " What did you do?" I asked. "Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes,' I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.'"

Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.

The Eagle Once a farmer found an abandoned eagle's nest and in it was an egg still warm. He took the egg back to his farm and laid it in the nest of one of his hens. The egg hatched and the baby eagle grew up along with the other chickens. It pecked about the farmyard, scrabbling for grain. It spent its life within the yard and rarely looked up. When it was very old, one day it lifted up its head and saw above it a wonderful sight - an eagle soaring high above in the sky. Looking at it, the old creature sighed and said to itself, "If only I'd been born an eagle". Source: an adaptation from an Anthony de Mello story

A Rooster Named Ego There once was a small farm, outside a town, few had ever heard of. It was happy little farm and a quiet little farm, until a young rooster named Ego became big enough to crow.

At first, Ego crowed in morning, like roosters are suppose to. He crowed to let everyone know it was time to get up.

Then one day Ego noticed that every time he crowed the sun came up. “I make the sun come up,” Ego thought to himself. Then he crowed a crow that said, “I am the best. I am greatest. No one is better than me.” He liked crowing this so much he crowed it all day long.

Ego was crowing when the sun went down and he noticed this. Ego said to himself, “My crow made the sun go down.” Then he crowed a crow all night, which said, “No one is greater than me, no one ever has been, and no one will ever be.”

The following morning all the other animals were tired. They hadn’t been able to sleep, because Ego had crowed all night. They thought though, that it was just one night. All the animals knew that every rooster crows too much sometimes. They were sure Ego would stop crowing all the time, about how great he was, but Ego didn’t.

Ego continued to crow day and night. It seemed that Ego didn’t need to sleep. He just needed to crow about how great he was. So the animals decided it was time for Ego to crow someplace else.

Ego the rooster was on top of the chicken coop crowing, when Pig said to him, “My, that’s a mighty fine crow you got there Ego, too bad you’re not up higher.”

Ego stopped crowing for a moment and asked, “Why should I be higher?”

“Well,” Pig said, “If you were up higher, more animals and people could hear you crow?”

Ego realized that Pig was right, that if he crowed from someplace higher, more people could hear him. So Ego look around the farm to see what was the highest place on it. The barn’s roof was the highest place on the farm; so Ego jump into the air and started flapping his wings as hard as he could.

Ego barely made it to the top of the barn. Chickens aren’t the best fliers. Once Ego caught his breath, he looked around. He could see the whole farm and several other farms too. He started crowing so those other farms could hear how great he was too. He crowed and crowed.

Then several barn swallows flew over and landed next to Ego. Pip, a young barn swallow said, “My, that’s such a great crow you have there, too bad you’re not over in that tree on the hill.”

Ego stopped crowing. “Why would I want to be over there?” He asked.

“Well,” Pip replied, “If you crowed from the top of that tree, the whole valley could hear you.”

Ego realized Pip was right and flew down from the barn’s roof. He landed on top of some hay bales, in the back of a truck, driving down the road. When the truck drove past the hill, Ego jumped off. He flapped his wings as hard as he could, until he landed on the highest branch of the tree. After he caught his breath, Ego the rooster started crowing again.

Owl, who had been sleeping, came out of his hole in the tree. “What are you doing up here?” Owl asked Ego.

“I’m crowing.” Ego answered.

“Yes, I know, but why from here?” Owl asked.

“So the whole valley can hear how great I am.” Ego answered.

Owl thought for a moment, then said, “It’s a shame you’re crowing here, and not from town.”

“Why’s it a shame?” Ego asked.

“Well,” Owl said, “They got these very tall buildings in town. If you crowed from the top of one of them, why the whole county could hear you?”

Ego realized that Owl was right, and without so much as a “thank you,” he flew from the tree and landed on the luggage rack of a car headed toward town.

Once the car reach town, Ego started to look around at all the tall buildings. When he saw, what looked like the tallest building, he flew off the car and up to one of the building's ledges. There he rested for a moment, and then few to a higher ledge. Ledge after ledge, he flew until he was on top of the building. Then he started to crow.

Ego crowed and crowed. He let the whole county know how great he was. Soon some pigeons landed next to him.

Curly, a fat pigeon, looked at Ego and asked, “Rooster, why are you crowing here?”

Ego replied, “I'm crowing here, so the whole county can hear how great I am.”

Curly, thought for a moment, then said, “It’s too bad you’re not crowing from the top of that mountain over there?”

“Why would I want to crow from that mountain,” Ego asked?

“Well,” Curly replied, then the whole world could hear you crow.

‘The whole world,” Ego thought excitedly, and flew off the top of the building. He flapped and flapped his wings until her landed on the back of a train, heading toward the mountain.

Occasionally, while Ego was on top of the train, it would blow its horn. When this happened Ego thought the train was trying to crow louder than him, so Ego crowed back. Ego thought his crow was louder. Ego was almost crowed out, by the time the train reached the mountain. He flew off the train, before it went into the tunnel. Then Ego climbed and flew all the way to the top of the mountain.

From the very top of the mountain the next morning Ego crowed to make the sun come up. Then he crowed and crowed and crowed to the whole world, about his greatness. Some say, Ego’s still up on that mountain crowing to the whole world.

The small farm, Ego had once called home, became quiet and happy again. No one missed Ego’s crowing all the time.